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The new station will allow TARTA to close its current
four-station downtown loop that encloses nine city blocks.
TARTA purchased the former Goodwill Building at Huron and
Cherry streets in 2018 for $1.5 million and spent about
$650,000 to remodel the space into its central bus station.
The monies were obtained through federal Transit Authority
and Ohio Department of Transportation grants.
The newly renovated space contains a passenger lobby of
5,000 square feet, a climate-controlled waiting area,
information booths, restrooms, security, on-site pass
purchases and fac-to-face contact with information
operators. The hub is 100 percent accessible to those with
disabilities.
Present at last week’s ceremony were U.S. Representative
Marcy Kaptur; Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz; Stacey Clink,
TARTA interim general manager; City Councilmen Larry Sykes,
Yvonne Harper; Toledo Public Schools Board Member Bob
Vasquez; State Rep Lisa Sobecki, among others.
Kaptur noted that the new hub continues a downtown revival
for the Toledo, calling the reuse a “major victory.”
The ceremony last week is the first phase of the TARTA hub
transformation. The second phase, due to be completed in
August 2020, will bring administrative offices into the
facility.
Now, with the new development, most TARTA buses will line up
along either northbound Huron Street between Orange and
Cherry streets or eastbound on Cherry between Huron and
Superior streets. During the open house last week,
information listed seven routes that will have lineups on
the westbound side of Huron.
Next spring, TARTA hopes to place on local ballots for
voters’ approval, a measure that will switch local funding
from a property tax to a sales tax. The key to getting the
measure on the ballots is the approval of the
representatives from all of the member communities of the
TARTA system and, so far, the board of commissioners of
Sylvania Township have blocked those efforts.
“With proper funding, we can become an innovative,
effective, viable transportation option,” said Clink.
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